The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of an olive tree, botanically described as Olea europaea L. of the Oleaceae family, and hereinafter referred to by the variety denomination ‘MASEPO’.
The new Olea europaea L. ‘MASEPO’ is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventors, Shimon Lavee, Benjamin Avidan and Yair Manni, in Bet Dagan, Israel. The objective of the breeding program was to develop a new Olea europaea L. which is suitable for both green and black pickling, exhibits resistance to Spilocaea oleagina (peacock eye leaf disease), requires minimal pruning and facilitates hand-picking.
The new Olea europaea L. ‘MASEPO’ originated as a result of self pollination of the Olea europaea L. ‘MANZANILLO’ (unpatented) made by the inventors in 1990 in Bet Dagan, Israel. The new Olea europaea L. ‘MASEPO’ was observed and selected from the progeny of the stated self-pollination in 1994 by the inventors in a controlled environment in Bet Dagan, Israel.
Asexual propagation of the new Olea europaea L. ‘MASEPO’ by rooting of vegetative cuttings was first performed in the spring of 1995 in Bet Dagan, Israel, and has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new variety are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual propagation. The new variety propagates true to type.